The number of people born outside the UK and living in Leicester fell slightly last year, new figures suggest.

Migration statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that, in 2016, there were an estimated 120,000 foreign-born residents of the city.

That was down from 121,000 the year before.

The data implies a reversal of a long-term rise, with the number of foreign-born people living in Leicester having previously grown from just 83,000 in 2006.

Some 35% of the local population were born outside the UK - roughly one in three.

The national picture

The figures for Leicester buck a national trend.

Across England as a whole, the estimated number of people born outside the UK rose from 7.87 million to 8.37 million between 2015 and 2016.

That figure stood at 5.6 million a decade ago.

It means for every 1,000 people living in England in 2016, 154 were born outside the UK.

That works out as roughly one in seven.

The county figures

In the county of Leicestershire, the number of non-UK-born residents rose from 50,000 in 2015 to 54,000 in 2015.

The figures - which are described as estimates - were released by the ONS today as separate data showed overall net migration to the UK had fallen to its lowest level in three years.

The decrease was fuelled by a significant number of EU citizens choosing to leave the country.

Net long-term international migration - the gap between people arriving in the UK and those leaving to go abroad - stood at 246,000 in the year to March 2017 compared to 327,000 the previous year.

The number of EU citizens leaving the UK rose by 33,000 to 122,000 over that period, with the biggest increase among those leaving for the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

It still means the UK’s population rose by nearly 250,000 a year due to immigration - which is equivalent to a city roughly the size of Kingston-upon-Hull.